Area college coaches preview upcoming football season

In a few short weeks Larry Fedora, Dave Doeren, David Cutcliffe, Scottie Montgomery and Jerry Mack will be more buttoned up and focused on the sidelines. For an afternoon, though, they got to relax for a bit and share a more casual part of their personalities during the annual Bill Dooley Pigskin Preview.

The coaches opened up about a variety of topics, including how they proposed, and Dave Doeren's story featured an ultimatum, of sorts.

"I said (to my now wife), look here's the deal -- I'm moving to California, and I'm not going without you, and the only way I'm allowed to take you is if we're married, so what do you think?"

Hear from head coaches at Duke, NC State, UNC, NC Central and East Carolina.

"We found a church we wanted to get married in, and there were two dates they had open. One was a month later and the other was thirteen months after that," Doeren said. "So we picked July 4th, and thirty days later we got married."

The coaches also shared tales of their most interesting recruiting trips, and for UNC's Larry Fedora the memorable moment came during his time at Baylor.

"We're walking on campus and the tour guide says (to the recruit), 'Here's our bear den, and this is where the bear lives.' (The recruit) stopped and said, 'You've got a bear on campus?' I was like, 'Yeah. We're the Baylor Bears, and so we have a live bear.' He says, 'Can I go down there and see the live bear?' They take him down there to let him look at the bear, and he turns around and says, 'You got a Bear? I'm committing!'"

The coaches also revealed how they spend their limited free time during the offseason, and with that, Duke's David Cutcliffe takes "Netflix and chill" to a whole different level.

"I knew there were shows out there that I liked, but I never got to watch TV until now," he said. "I have finished 11 seasons of Cheers (and) ten seasons of Friends all on a treadmill! How cool is that?"

The audience also got involved during an auction featuring school swag for a good cause. A pair of Duke helmets topped the list as hot items, selling for four grand total.When it came to talking actual X's and O's, second year ECU head coach Scottie Montgomery gave an update on the pirates quarterback battle, which features former Duke star and Pirates transfer Thomas Sirk.

"We're very blessed to have Thomas Sirk there now competing for our starting role, but as we speak right now Gardner Minshew is our starter," Montgomery said. "We're going to go into camp and let those guys battle it out."

Perhaps the man with the most pressure on stage was NC Central head coach Jerry Mack, who was the only guy from the bunch to win a conference title last season. Coming off of a Celebration Bowl appearance, Mack knows expectations remain high for the Eagles.

"We've got some new faces in some different roles and also some guys on our roster that have three championships," Mack said. "I'm really excited about the direction that we're heading in as a program."

With the start of the season looming, this was the last time these coaches will get together as friends rather than foes, so naturally they took a few useful tips from one another.

"I get a chance to pull Coach Mo to the side or pull Coach Cutcliffe to the side, and that's one of the things I love (about) coming to this event," Mack said. "I get a chance to sit down for five or 10 minutes with high quality coaches and learn from them."